Timothy LeDuc Is The First Openly Nonbinary Winter Olympian, And I'm Rooting So Hard For Them To Win The Gold
Timothy LeDuc is making Olympic history: The pairs figure skater is the first openly nonbinary winter Olympian.
LeDuc, who is paired with Ashley Cain-Gribble, is competing for their first Olympic medal in Beijing.
“My hope is that when people see my story, it isn’t focused on me and saying, ‘Oh, Timothy is the first out non-binary person to achieve this level of success in sport,'" LeDuc told NBC Sports. "My hope is that the narrative shifts more to, ‘Queer people can be open and successful in sports.’"
"We’ve always been here, we’ve always been a part of sports," they said in the interview. "We just haven’t always been able to be open."
US Figure Skating / Via giphy.com
LeDuc also acknowledged the nonbinary athletes who came before them. “I know that me being here — and being able to be out now — is only possible because of the many great people who came before me. I stand on the shoulders of so many amazing queer people that have pushed their way through this sport, allowing me to be open now.”
In June 2021, LeDuc discussed navigating heteronormative standards in the world of pairs skating in an Instagram interview with Eliot Halverson, a trans, nonbinary ice skater.
“There’s such an expectation that I feel pressured to fill all of the time as the ‘male’ pairs skater — I like to say the ‘lifting partner’ — but, you know, there is an expectation,” they said. “And so often, the story that we see told in pairs and ice dances, it’s a Romeo and Juliet story. It’s the man and woman in love. Or it’s this fragile girl, and the strong man comes in to save her, right?”
“It sometimes doesn’t leave room for people who exist outside that hetero- and cis-normativity,” they continued. “So it can be really difficult navigating that sometimes.”
Cain-Gribble and LeDuc have been praised for the way their routines have challenged these standards.
After securing a recent win, Cain-Gribble told reporters during an NBC press conference: “I think we want to dedicate these performances and this title to all the people that felt like they didn’t belong — or were told that they didn’t belong — in this sport.”
